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A pulse, a passing grade and a business card?
Posted by Marlow Harris under Real Estate
[18] Comments
Marc Davison on the 1000 Watt blog recently wrote an article entitled “A pulse, a passing grade and a business card: raising the bar on real estate agent qualifications”, imploring brokerages to raise their hiring standards.
I’m really torn about this idea. On the one hand, I would love to raise the professionalism of my chosen career. On the other hand, I love the idea that for someone who has common sense and wants to work hard, the sky’s the limit. It’s one of the few jobs a woman can do while raising children, it’s schedule is very adaptable. It’s also a great 2nd career for many people. Why should we look down our noses on those without college degrees or make it again another job that requires a degree, when it really is not necessary.
Neither Air Traffic Controllers nor Nuclear power reactor operators nor commercial pilots (all life-or-death/serious jobs) need a college degree…. why should this one? The definition of a professional is a prescribed course of education, a code or set of rules and regulations, and membership in a professional organization, and membership in the National Association of Realtors fulfills these requirements to raise real estate agents to the level of a professional. Why put a college degree on that requirement, too?
The reality, however, is that many Realtors have college degrees. But you can’t teach common sense and you can’t teach someone to be clever.
According to the NAR, Realtors are well-educated, with 44 percent holding at least a bachelor’s degree, which is about double the national average of degree holders in the U.S.. They are active in the political process – 95 percent are registered to vote; 91 percent voted in the last national election and 81 percent voted in the last local election.
In addition, many Realtors hold at least one professional designation, with the most popular being GRI (Graduate, REALTOR® Institute), held by 19 percent of respondents; ABR® (Accredited Buyer Representative®), 14 percent; and CRS® (Certified Residential Specialist®), 10 percent. Smaller percentages hold one of 14 other designations.
In addition, twelve percent belong to the Council of Residential Specialists, 11 percent are members of the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council, 5 percent the Women’s Council of Realtors and 3 percent the Council of Real Estate Brokerage Managers; smaller percentages belong to five other affiliates.
Why all this lamenting about lack of professionalism? It seems to me that there are plenty of folks working hard to take continuing education classes after they get their license.
Yes, some agents and Realtors act unprofessionally. Not sure how to stop that. I can only hope they fail miserably and go back to practicing law or whatever else they were doing prior to becoming Realtors, sales agents and real estate brokers.
18 Responses to “ A pulse, a passing grade and a business card? ”
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Great Post. Realtors are a cross section of the country, and there are lots of folks in every professional who are unethical, unprofessional, and do a poor job for their clients. Higher education doesn’t scour the workforce to inoculate it against bad behavior.
At the firm where I work, I can tell that most of us have very high qualifications and behave very well. Re your comment: “I can only hope they fail miserably and go back to practicing law or whatever else they were doing prior to becoming Realtors, sales agents and real estate brokers.” What do you think is better? a doctor-turned realtor, a politician-turned realtor or a lawyer-turned realtor?
Ha! I was just being a smart-aleck. But really, I DO know a doctor, a heart surgeon who I believe still practices, who got his real estate license because he thinks it’s “fun”. He’s listed and sold several properties. Even though he’s really smart, I think his participation cheapens both professions, as he’s doing both part-time, rather than committed in full to either one. Plus, I have to admit I resent his doing for “fun” what most of us have to do for a living….. Especially when many of us have spent so much time building and nurturing our business. He seems like an interloper rather than a serious, professional real estate broker or Realtor.
It all starts with the Brokerages. In my opinion there is a lack of over sight from the Brokers in the offices. These new sets of regulations of having a Managing and Designated Broker are to that point. I have worked in an office where the office manager was completely in charge. She knew the paper work, and checked it, but that was the extent of the Broker, agent inter action.
The second part of the problem is that designations don’t translate into experience. There should be a mentoring program for new agents. Offices and Brokers should also have real experience. A site sitter agent can get a brokerage designation, without ever working outside of a development. This is actually where it gets murky. There are also Mike Ferry followers out there who have hundreds of closed transactions by only throwing deals together.
A last observation is that we are in a second generation of mega Real Estate brokerages. Large franchises, big companies, and billions of dollars in sales has made Real Estate further removed from one on one consumer relationships. For all the sales knowledge there is very little product knowledge. We have gotten away from what the consumer wants or needs and are simply selling something, anything.
As a newbie to the real estate field I think mentorship should be an integral part of any brokerage.
Not just the “this is how you fill in the forms” but this is how you connect with people and do it with integrity.
Ian
Love your blog Marlow!
Maybe having a college degree might be setting the bar too high, but how about we start with having a bar at all! In the State of Washington you do need a high school diploma, AS A REQUIREMENT TO BE A BROKER! When I became an Realtor I was shocked that the bar to become a real estate agent did not include at least a GED! Agents help buyers with the largest dollar purchase they’ll ever make, how about we make sure they can do ninth grade algebra….
OK, let’s talk about 1000 wats. He’s a hanger on.
In my opinion it is these types of sticky web people who have cheapened the Real Estate Industry.
It’s the same as the Glen guy and his look at me I have a web site. They will do nothing for you, at a cheap price.
Why give credibility to a gimmick.
Hi Margo,
There’s one correction that’s needed. When defining professional, it’s not just specialized education but formalized academic education where the person has obtained a college degree.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional
By many standards we would classify Realtors as an emerging profession.
The other item that jumped out at me was the 44% number from NAR.
Not
all
agents
are
Realtors.
Think of the thousands of licensees that are non-Realtors. It would be interesting to see their highest level of education completed.
Regarding the mentoring others mention, the state licensing laws in WA State change this year to require broker/manager supervision of new agents.
It’s “Marlow”. My name is Marlow.
And yes, there are thousands of agents who are not Realtors. They are not, by definition, “professionals”. Only Realtors, who have a prescribed course of education, a code or set of rules and regulations, and membership in a professional organization (the National Association of Realtors) can be described as real estate professionals.
Whatever Wikipedia says, a college degree is not required to be a “professional”. One can be a professional sports player without having a degree. One can be a professional pilot without having a college degree. One can be a professional soldier without a college degree. Hence, one can be a real estate professional, no degree needed.
The 1000 watts of light vividly demonstrates that Real Estate blogging is a bad way to enter the Real Estate market place. He outlines how Dustin rose his blog to prominence as an outsider. The watts guy is an outsider. The Glen guy is an outcast, by his own choice, and these people are having some input.
I’ll get right to it in a comparison between Marlow and Ardell. My question of these many years is who would give Ardell a deal. I’ve read her blogging and it makes no sense what so ever. It’s all sale hype, just sales hype.
Is this fair to the consumer, who has turned to the internet as a resource for what is now a quarter to half million dollar purchase? Is it fair to the consumer to say that all some one needs is to pay National Association of Realtor dues, take some classes, get some designations, and they are good to go?
Consumers have lost billions of dollars and the internet community wants business as usual. Isn’t it time we lift up the rock on these web 2.0 hucksters?
Look it, it’s all content, and controversy, let’s get rockin’.
Marlo,
Thank you for taking this up on your blog and presenting a well rounded opinion on the topic.
If I can, I’d like to shed some light on my POV. I believe I made it clear that I do not think the “industry” should mandate a college degree. As you stated and as I am in agreement, all people with all sorts of skills sets and educational backgrounds should have access to this industry. My mother was a broker. My son is a Realtor. I am proud of both of them.
My take was strictly meant for me and what I would do if I started a brokerage in response to a question asked by a client who owns a large prestigious brokerage with 1500 agents.
Since I come from the advertising world (20 years on Madison Ave) or more accurately, the branding side of things, I always consider what I can do different from the common model.
As I drilled down through the common attributes that make up a typical brokerage and the common threads woven through the agent population, I felt that for my brokerage, outfitting it with agents who have 4-year degrees in communications, business, marketing and economics would cast different aura around us than the typical brokerage. I also considered other options such as only hiring little people or runway models or ex Marine Corp folks – things that I felt would stand out and get the community talking.
I leaned toward degrees because I felt providing a specialized team of academics to the public to handle such an important transaction was something different I can work with and market around.
Bear in mind, as the would be broker, I also must consider the mechanics of running a brokerage and the advantages I might obtain by hiring college educated agents with backgrounds in the areas that appear to be typically challenging for many agents such as technology, social media, advanced marketing techniques, and or the ability to comprehend and communicate clearly.
The one thing brokers contend with daily is the lack of brand unity within the culture. I realize this has a lot to do with agents being independent contractors and focused on building their own brands, which I admire and respect. But if I were sitting in the broker seat trying to build my own brand that wouldn’t work for me. I require a more disciplined sort with an academic understanding of brand building that I might better harness.
I don’t hold degreed people to be any more or less intelligent, moral or upstanding than those who aren’t. I simply see the advantages this category would bring me and my emerging new brokerage.
@David: I find your comments to be considerably unintelligible. Clearly you are trying to make a point albeit mired in incoherence.
What is an hanger on exactly? Is that someone who isn’t a Realtor? Do we, they not belong in real estate? How do you classify a hanger on? Is that anyone who earns a living selling something to an agent? If so and by that definition then Toyota, Dell, Apple, Supra, Blackberry, Microsoft, WordPress are hangers on too. I wonder where real estate would be without the help of anyone but a fellow Realtor, which in fact you appear to have issue with as well given your disparaging remarks about Ardell. I find that to be far more juvenile than your misunderstanding of yours truly.
There is nothing more damaging to real estate than one member of this profession disrespecting another publicly in social media. You really ought think before you hit publish
If you’ve accomplished anything here as well as on my own blog where you’ve gained access to large audience, it’s been the great job arguing my case. For that I thank you.
Hi Marc,
Thanks for your comments.
While I have a 4-year degree, I don’t want to lock anyone out of real estate who doesn’t have one, because I don’t think it’s necessarily needed to do a competent and professional job.
But I appreciate the discussion.
One thing I need to note is about branding. Yes, it is difficult to have a cohesive brand when every agent is trying to differentuate themselves. But it would be foolish for agents not to do this because establishing a personal brand is key to success in this field. I think a brokerage would have a hard time attracting good and successful agents if they forbade this. They would have to go to an employee model and pay a salary to keep good people.
I agree completely Marlow. I understand the independent model for agents and believe they should build their own brand within the current brokerage paradigm that exists today. The problem is that while this is good for the agents, it’s not good for the broker and that was the issue I had to contend with. I realize I would have to go by way of the salaried model and I would be prepared for that. Bear in mind, building companies and creating a brand is something I’m good at. Granted my brokerage might not have the best “salespeople” but the stark reality is that being good at sales is a moot talent if you aren’t good at marketing and cultivating business leads. This is where the rubber meets the road today and where professional salespeople are missing my point.
There are new skills required in real today that many salespeople don’t have which explains why so many salespeople are not selling. They can’t master the web which requires skills that time and time again are found in agents with degrees.
These are the agents I’d want at my brokerage.
If this were 10 years ago, it wouldn’t make a difference. But today, I think it does.
You know, it’s not a coincidence that so many agents currently running savvy blogs, managing good social media sites, and closing deals are, like yourself, have academic backgrounds. The longer this market stays down and the more complex the web gets, the harder it will be for agents, especially new ones, who are either not tech savvy, not creative or educated to make a living.
Great post, and we wonder why people do not trust real estate agents.
MarkJacobsRealtor.com
Good Morning Marlow!
The 1000 Watt guy along with what has happened to the Rain City Guide has me wondering if all the money spent on web based Real Estate products has been a waste of time.
Mike Ferry has actually done more to promote a strong client base than web sites have. No one in Real Estate wants Mike Ferry as an example of the industry, but he advocates getting out there in front of people. Isn’t that the business?
Don’t people pay Real Estate agents to know the products in the market place? Can you blow into town, sit down at a computer, and start doing business? Can you network your way into a local Real Estate market place?
After those questions, it’s a matter of the consumer. Does the consumer know what they are looking at? They can, and do, know the neighborhood they live in. They should be able to do deals based on where they live, and what they know. Isn’t that the niche discount brokers have?
Has the web 2.0 really contributed anything to the home buying process?
In the past few months I have gone through all the magic data bases of the web 2.0 transparency and there is a shocking lack of information. Even with the information that is presented with the charts, and graphs, it’s still a sales pitch of comparative shopping.
In today’s market place people are going to need help way beyond the sales hype. Web sites seem to be the sales pitch in a written form. Maybe it’s my perception based on my experiences with the Real Estate Industry, but I feel the consumer is paying the ultimate price for being mislead by the web 2.0 transparency.
As a former Attorney and current Realtor, I would love to see us increase the standards for Realtors. I work at a high level of professionalism and expect the same from other Realtors – but am often disappointed. In Arizona you do not even need to be a high school graduate to get your real estate license. Come on!!! At least we should require a high school equivalency.
“As a former Attorney and current Realtor, I would love to see us increase the standards for Realtors.”
I agree with you entirely, Carmen. If we don’t raise the bar, here, then we can’t possibly expect for the real estate market to improve any time soon.